Tourist In Custody, Passport Surrendered in Brooklyn Bridge Climb

Yaroslav Kolchin was able to climb to the top of the Brooklyn Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge Sunday.

Theodore Parisienne

A Russian tourist arrested Sunday after allegedly scaling the Brooklyn Bridge in broad daylight remained in custody after being unable to make bail Monday.

Yaroslav Kolchin, 24 years old, from Moscow, faces charges of reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, trespass and disorderly conduct, all misdemeanors, following the incident. He was ordered Monday to surrender his passport

He was not required to enter a plea or speak during his brief arraignment in front of Brooklyn criminal court judge Raymond Rodriguez, who set bail at $5,000.

For the top charge, he faces up to a year in prison, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said.

Standing with his hands uncuffed but behind his back and wearing the same grey hooded sweatshirt and denim shorts as he did during his arrest, Mr. Kolchin listened to the proceedings through a Russian translator. He will next appear in court in Brooklyn Friday.

The case comes just a month after two German artists apparently scaled the Brooklyn Bridge and swapped out two American flags with white ones as a stunt. The security lapse has led the New York Police Department to consider new technology to prevent people from climbing to the top of the city’s bridges.

At an event Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said of the stunt Sunday, “You can hold me accountable and Commissioner (William) Bratton accountable.”

Saying that the city is doing a full-scale review of security that will lead to changes, Mr. de Blasio added, “It’s clear a lot of eyes were on the situation and the response was very quick.”

Yaroslav Kolchin is escorted from the Brooklyn Bridge by police.

Theodore Parisienne

Micah Halpern, a security expert who formerly lectured at Yale University, said the incident is troublesome for police. “It’s a black eye,” he said, adding “it looks bad especially since they’re supposed to be the best in the world especially dealing with local risks. They need to learn their lesson before it gets out of control.”

“It’s really important to secure these areas because they are symbols to the world,” Mr. Halpern added.

In Brooklyn criminal court Monday, Assistant District Attorney Laurie Cartwright said police were called around noon Sunday after receiving “multiple calls of an individual ascending the wires on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

She added officers arrived to find Mr. Kolchin “276 feet high” atop the tower on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, with “a multitude of onlookers” gathered below.

“The defendant stated in sum and substance ‘I did it for fun,’” Ms. Cartwright said.

Paul Liu, Mr. Kolchin’s attorney, said his client was in the city as part of a tour group that had since departed. The defendant recently graduated from college and worked for an advertising firm in Russia, he added.

In asking the judge to consider releasing him on his own recognizance, Mr. Liu said Mr. Kolchin had a room booked at the Globetrotters Hostel in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn for as long as was needed.

The judge, though, said the defendant could potentially get a new passport at the Russian consulate and set bail at $5,000 cash or bond. But, in a nod to Mr. Kolchin’s circumstances, he also urged the district attorney’s office to press ahead with the case swiftly. “You should have some kind of offer for him this Friday; this is not a complicated case,” the judge said.